“Nice dress, Fiona.” He looked me up and down. “Is that the latest fashion in Europe?”
“Oh, shut up,” I said. “I hear there was some excitement out on Front Street earlier.”
“Sam Collins saved the Vanderhaege sisters,” Angus told him, delighting in being the spreader of good news. “Mother helped him.”
Graham looked at me, his head cocked to one side in disbelief.
“I didn’t help matters in the slightest. You missed a great story.”
“Luck of the job. I’ve been hearing about it all over town, came in to see if Sam’s here. All of Dawson’s talking about him.”
“Constable Sterling was a hero, too,” Angus said. “He saved Miss Vanderhaege. The older one.”
“A hero also,” I corrected.
“That’s what I said.”
“Never mind.” Graham looked at Sterling.
“So I’ve heard. Well done, Constable. I suppose they’ll give you a medal. Or something.”
“All in the line of duty, Donohue. Not something you’d know much about. Angus, if you’ve given your mother her things, get out of here. If you’ll excuse me, Mrs. MacGillivray.”
He turned and was swallowed up by the crowd. Men clutching drinks in hands filled the space he’d vacated.
“I gave Sam the rest of the day off,” I said as one skinny young fellow trod on my foot. I threw him my most ferocious glare, and he retreated into the safety of the pack.
“That was kind of you,” Graham said. “Must be a first. No, I’m wrong—that was Helen. You’ll be applying for sainthood soon enough, Fee.”
“If you’ll excuse me…”
“How are the Misses Vanderhaege doing, Mr. Donohue?” Angus asked. “Have you heard?”
“I’ve just come from the infirmary. The doctor says they’ll both be fine. Anna Marie is suffering from smoke in her lungs, and Anike has burns on her back and legs, but they’ll heal. We’re lucky the whole street didn’t go up in flames and take the town with it.”
I shrugged. “Too darn wet.” The package was cooling in my hands. Bread by the smell of it, and fresh. “I want to eat and tidy up. Angus, tell Ray I’ll be down shortly and then go home.”
“Yes, Ma.”
I spun on my heels. “What did you say?”
“Yes, Mother.”
“That’s better.”
Chapter Ten
Angus made his way towards the bar. Richard Sterling was standing with his back to the wall, underneath a painting of a lady wearing nothing but stockings and a bonnet, watching the men. Ray was behind the bar; his hands never stopped moving, but his eyes remained focused on the door leading to the gambling room, and the dance hall beyond. Something was bothering the little Scotsman: not hard to guess what. Everyone in town knew that Ray carried a torch taller than himself for Irene. The Savoy was busy tonight, and with Sam Collins off and Ray distracted, the two newer bartenders were having trouble keeping up.
Angus looked back to see his mother carrying her parcel to the stairs leading to the second floor, moving slowly under the weight of her mud-encrusted skirts. Only once, as she reached out to grab the banister without thinking about it, did her composure slip and her face twist in pain.
Graham Donohue slapped Angus on the back, and they walked towards the bar together. A man sporting a tangled grey beard so long that it almost touched his belt offered to buy the boy a drink. Angus’s ears flushed, but the miner winked at the watching policeman.
“I’ll take you up on that offer, George,” Donohue said with a laugh.
“Be a frosty day in hell before I buy you a drink, Graham Donohue. Which reminds me, I hear you got beat out by the newcomer.”
Donohue stopped smiling. “What newcomer might that be?”
“American fellow. Name of England or France, some foreign country.”
“Ireland?”
“Yeah, that’s the one,” the miner said, enjoying himself enormously. He ran one dirty finger over the rim of his glass. “He was here when it all happened, weren’t he, Angus? With a fellow taking pictures and all. Interviewed old Sam Collins right on the spot. Ain’t that so, Angus?”
Angus nodded. “He took a picture of Ma, too. She wasn’t at all pleased, not with mud on her face and her hair in a mess.”
“Your ma’d be the most beautiful woman in Dawson even if she’d been swimmin’ in mud, son.” The miner sighed.
Donohue’s face was turning red, and the veins in his neck had suddenly doubled in size. “Are you telling me that bastard, Ireland, had a photographer out in the street when the bakery was burning?” The words came out as an angry hiss, spoken through clenched teeth.
“Watch your language, Donohue,” Sterling warned. “Boy here.”
The miner tugged at his beard. He grinned, showing a mouth empty of teeth. “Guess that’s what I’m sayin’, all right.”
Donohue shoved the man aside and pushed his way to the bar. Angus steadied the miner, who was now chuckling heartily. “That got under his skin right enough.” The old man downed his drink. A few drops spilled out of the corner of his mouth and disappeared into the bushy beard.
“I don’t think you should’ve told Mr. Donohue that, sir,” Angus said. “He looks real mad.”
The miner wiped the back of his hand across his mouth. “Stir the pot and see what rises to the top, lad. Best fun to be had in this miserable town.” He went to the bar, still chuckling.
“Great fun for some,” Sterling muttered so that only Angus could hear. “But it makes work for the Mounties. Have you got some reason to be hanging around?”
“My ma gave me a message for Mr. Walker, sir.”
“Deliver your message and get out of here. Or I’ll have to take you in.”
Angus grinned, the prospect of a night in jail speaking more of adventure than hardship.
Sterling smiled back. “Hurry up, son.” Generally, the men who’d come through so much and travelled so far from home looked fondly on the few children in town. They slapped Angus’s back and tried to talk to him about their own family. He was too polite to push them aside. When he stopped for a second time to look at the photographs that a young cheechako had pulled out of his jacket pocket, Sterling yelled, “Angus, deliver your message and go home!”
Angus bolted, and the would-be prospector stuffed the photographs back into his pocket as if they were about to be confiscated and used as evidence.
“Ma’s gone upstairs, Mr. Walker, to clean up. She’ll be back real soon.” Angus shouted across the last few yards to the bar as he dashed for the door.
“Hold up, just a minute, Angus,” Sterling said. He caught up with the boy out on the boardwalk. The traffic streaming up and down Front Street was heavy. Horses and carts struggled through the mud; women crossed the street on the duckboards, lifting their skirts in an attempt to keep them clean. A few doors down, the building that had once been a bakery was a blackened shell. “I spoke to Sergeant Lancaster this afternoon.”
“The boxing champion?”
“The very one.”
“What did he say? Will he teach me?”
“He’d like to meet you. Then he’ll decide.”
“Can we go now?”